Office 2019 Is Now Available for Windows and Mac

[cageymaru]

Office 2019 is now available for Windows and Mac. This is the version of Office for consumers and businesses that aren't quite ready for the Cloud or able to receive regular updates. The well known software suite contains staples such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Visio, Access, and Publisher. Learning tools like Read Aloud and Text Spacing make content creation easier while the Focused Inbox keeps your most important emails front and center, while moving less important emails to the side. Commercial volume license (trusted) customers can access Office 2019 starting today, but everyone else will have to wait a few weeks.

The new enhancements in Office 2019 are a subset of a long list of features that have been added to Office 365 ProPlus over the last three years. Office 2019 is a one-time release and won't receive future feature updates. However, we'll continue to add new features to Office 365 ProPlus monthly, including innovations in collaboration, artificial intelligence (AI), security, and more.

 

[Taldren]

" that aren't quite ready for the Cloud or able to receive regular updates "
... or those that actually want to be able to own their software and don't want their sensitive information out in the cloud.

 

[arnemetis]

Here I thought 2016 would be the last version of them claiming this. So they realized they are leaving money on the table by not releasing standalone versions of the software. At this point they will probably keep doing this every 2-4 years.

 

[gunbust3r]

Could the "AI" in O365 get around to doing a layup like syncing my settings between machines? (outlook signature)

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

This is the version of Office for consumers and businesses that aren't quite ready for the Cloud

Ugh, so what they are saying is, it is only a matter of time until all of this goes cloud/subscription based

Personally I will certainly never subscribe to any cloud based software package.

 

[Domingo]

Looks like the PC version is really only available for select businesses that volume purchased Office 2016.

I managed to get 2016 for super cheap via my company's Home Use Program, but I dunno if they're going to support that for 2019. It's getting tougher and tougher to justify paying much for Office as a normal end user. There are free web app versions (and competing products) that will do everything that 99% of users need. I'm game to pay $25 again, but probably no more. Not like 2016 will stop working any time soon anyway.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Looks like the PC version is really only available for select businesses that volume purchased Office 2016.

I managed to get 2016 for super cheap via my company's Home Use Program, but I dunno if they're going to support that for 2019. It's getting tougher and tougher to justify paying much for Office as a normal end user. There are free web app versions (and competing products) that will do everything that 99% of users need. I'm game to pay $25 again, but probably no more. Not like 2016 will stop working any time soon anyway.

I'm still using 2010 both at work and at home. My home copy I got through a HUP program years ago, and I've never seen a need to upgrade. Heck, I'd still be using 2003 if it weren't for that HUP offer. I actually kind of liked the pre-ribbon traditional menus better.

That said, I only use the version at home on the rare occasion I need to open a document that doesn't render properly in LibreOffice. I keep a VM on my Linux desktop for situations like these.

So while I would absolutely never under any circumstance subscribe to a cloud version of Office or any other software, I would also refuse to use any free web apps for this purpose. I insist upon locally installed versions of software without any cloud component to them. Because of this, I find this trend disturbing, but I guess I don't have to worry too much. I can pretty much continue to use 2010 indefinitely.

 

[aliaskary77]

Looks like the PC version is really only available for select businesses that volume purchased Office 2016.

I managed to get 2016 for super cheap via my company's Home Use Program, but I dunno if they're going to support that for 2019. It's getting tougher and tougher to justify paying much for Office as a normal end user. There are free web app versions (and competing products) that will do everything that 99% of users need. I'm game to pay $25 again, but probably no more. Not like 2016 will stop working any time soon anyway.

I have Office, Project and Visio 2016, the last one under HUP before my work did away with it

 

[JargonGR]

I have office 365 at home since I needed licenses for 5-6 PCs + all our devices so 2016 standalone was a no go.

I really have no issues with it and we also get 1TB OneDrive per user. As far as privacy is concerned I really don't give a shit since my business docs are not state secrets and I doubt Microsoft cares about their content. Real secrets should only exist in our heads.

 

[Domingo]

I'm still using 2010 both at work and at home. My home copy I got through a HUP program years ago, and I've never seen a need to upgrade. Heck, I'd still be using 2003 if it weren't for that HUP offer. I actually kind of liked the pre-ribbon traditional menus better.

That said, I only use the version at home on the rare occasion I need to open a document that doesn't render properly in LibreOffice. I keep a VM on my Linux desktop for situations like these.

So while I would absolutely never under any circumstance subscribe to a cloud version of Office or any other software, I would also refuse to use any free web apps for this purpose. I insist upon locally installed versions of software without any cloud component to them. Because of this, I find this trend disturbing, but I guess I don't have to worry too much. I can pretty much continue to use 2010 indefinitely.

Hopefully you never have to use Adobe Creative Cloud. They went subscription-only 3'ish years ago and the older ones won't open anything created or modified in the newer versions. At least not without having to "save them down," which doesn't always work. That said, I do kinda like how often the programs get major updates. Looking at what the suite used to cost vs. the subscription, the pricing is actually a hair cheaper unless you managed to get some kind of crazy deal or were a late adopter.

 

[JargonGR]

Hopefully you never have to use Adobe Creative Cloud. They went subscription-only 3'ish years ago and the older ones won't open anything created or modified in the newer versions. At least not without having to "save them down," which doesn't always work. That said, I do kinda like how often the programs get major updates. Looking at what the suite used to cost vs. the subscription, the pricing is actually a hair cheaper unless you managed to get some kind of crazy deal or were a late adopter.

I use creative cloud and I think they are very down to earth as far as pricing is concerned. Now Autodesk on the other hand is another story as far as their pricing goes....

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hopefully you never have to use Adobe Creative Cloud. They went subscription-only 3'ish years ago and the older ones won't open anything created or modified in the newer versions. At least not without having to "save them down," which doesn't always work. That said, I do kinda like how often the programs get major updates. Looking at what the suite used to cost vs. the subscription, the pricing is actually a hair cheaper unless you managed to get some kind of crazy deal or were a late adopter.

Yeah, I looked at Photoshop a while back. I am completely and fundamentally opposed to their subscription model.

There is no way in hell I'm spending $10 per month for a piece of software I use only a handful of times a year. That would be like paying $20 every time I launch it.

It's nuts that they can get away with that. It would seem to me that if they instead sold cheaper licenses, they could get occasional users like me to buy a license, and spread out the cost over a much larger user base.

Instead, I'll just use the combination of Gimp (free and open source, yay) and my old Nikon Capture NX2 license for processing Nikon .NEF raw images when I need to. I know, it lacks some of the features and capabilities of Photoshop, but I'd sooner live with that than the crazy cost of the monthly subscription for Photoshop.

 

[katanaD]

However, we'll continue to add new features to Office 365 ProPlus monthly,

yes.. and thank you for that !!! its really great for billable hours


hahahahaha

 

[pcgeekesq]

The sad thing is the Office is going to hell. Office 2016 is vastly inferior to Office 2013.

The UI is cluttered, there's tons of crap in it you can't get rid of, like definitions in the pop-up spell check.
And it's SLOW. Spell check especially is incredibly slow. I sit there watching the spinning cursor every time I run it, even on small (10K word) documents.
And worse, it's WRONG. Office 2013 understood that "Claims 2 and 4 stand rejected..." was correct. Office 2016 thinks that should be "stands rejected."

I wouldn't have upgraded, but I subscribe to Office 365 Pro, and Office 2013 just stopped working one day.
Everything failed to launch. Microsoft gave me no choice.

 

[PaulP]

I switched to Libre Office years ago for my personal needs. It is more than powerful enough for that. At work, I am forced to use the Microsoft crap that gets slower and buggier with every new release.

 

[TwiceOver]

Ugh, so what they are saying is, it is only a matter of time until all of this goes cloud/subscription based

Personally I will certainly never subscribe to any cloud based software package.

I thought this too, until I got o365. Bang for buck, it's a great value. Then I started looking at it for business, and it was a no-brainer. So much less hassle than Exchange, CALs, licensing, etc. Now with OneDrive KFM I don't even have to back up my user's data.

Would I like to use some alternate office application? Sure, but there's nothing compared to Outlook and when you NEED Excel, there is no substitute.

 

[Armenius]

The sad thing is the Office is going to hell. Office 2016 is vastly inferior to Office 2013.

The UI is cluttered, there's tons of crap in it you can't get rid of, like definitions in the pop-up spell check.
And it's SLOW. Spell check especially is incredibly slow. I sit there watching the spinning cursor every time I run it, even on small (10K word) documents.
And worse, it's WRONG. Office 2013 understood that "Claims 2 and 4 stand rejected..." was correct. Office 2016 thinks that should be "stands rejected."

I wouldn't have upgraded, but I subscribe to Office 365 Pro, and Office 2013 just stopped working one day.
Everything failed to launch. Microsoft gave me no choice.

I'm on 2016 at work and have never encountered any of these issues you describe, though I do prefer 2013 because calculations in Excel are faster than 2016 in my experience and the UI in Outlook just took another nosedive after the most recent update.

 

[Domingo]

I'd actually like to see a stripped down version of Office for home users that don't need things like Outlook, Onedrive Pro, Skype for Business, or any admin tools. Full (non-web) apps for Word, Excel, PPT, and Publisher...but that's it.
They could probably scoop up some of the business they're losing with a $50 product like that.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I'd actually like to see a stripped down version of Office for home users that don't need things like Outlook, Onedrive Pro, Skype for Business, or any admin tools. Full (non-web) apps for Word, Excel, PPT, and Publisher...but that's it.
They could probably scoop up some of the business they're losing with a $50 product like that.

Yeah, for home use I'd want Word and Excel. I'd only very rarely use Powerpoint. In fact, I don't think I've used it at home since I've been out of school.

I've never used Publisher at work or at home. I don't even know what it does.

I do really like Visio though. Thats a great tool.

 

[drescherjm]

They could probably scoop up some of the business they're losing with a $50 product like that.

I expect they would likely want way more than $50 for that..

Then the question of if they are worried of losing some of the less demanding business customers to this.

 

[socK]

The sad thing is the Office is going to hell. Office 2016 is vastly inferior to Office 2013.

The UI is cluttered, there's tons of crap in it you can't get rid of, like definitions in the pop-up spell check.
And it's SLOW. Spell check especially is incredibly slow. I sit there watching the spinning cursor every time I run it, even on small (10K word) documents.
And worse, it's WRONG. Office 2013 understood that "Claims 2 and 4 stand rejected..." was correct. Office 2016 thinks that should be "stands rejected."

I wouldn't have upgraded, but I subscribe to Office 365 Pro, and Office 2013 just stopped working one day.
Everything failed to launch. Microsoft gave me no choice.

Am I retarded because I can't remember 2013 even looking particularly different than the 2016 client. If anything, 2016 has a some nice usability updates.

And I haven't really noticed any meaningful performance difference.

 

[Domingo]

I expect they would likely want way more than $50 for that..

Then the question of if they are worried of losing some of the less demanding business customers to this.

Very possible, although I do (anecdotally) know several small businesses that have just started using the Google suite for free after discovering how much Office 365 is.

 

[mlcarson]

I've dropped Microsoft Office from my home PC's even though I could get it free via work. I've been using SoftMaker Office Professional 2018, FlexiPDF (Adobe Acrobat replacement), and Draw.io (Visio replacement). These alternatives work better for me than what they replaced.

 

[TheCommander]

MS Office is excellent software. It has been consistently good (unlike some Windows versions) throughout the versions and I don't mind the changes they made either. I tried alternatives like Google docs, Open Office, etc... and didn't care for them.

 

[heatlesssun]

MS Office is excellent software. It has been consistently good (unlike some Windows versions) throughout the versions and I don't mind the changes they made either. I tried alternatives like Google docs, Open Office, etc... and didn't care for them.

Microsoft has made a lot of mistakes with their other products but I think overall they've executed well in the Office space over the years. The biggest bummer for me personally is the dropping of the OneNote desktop client which is just a fantastic app that has no equivalent. The UWP just isn't there yet though the desktop app is still supported until 2025, maybe by then the UWP gets there.

 

[cyclone3d]

Sweet.. BRB... going to see if it is available through my work's home use program yet.

Edit: Nope. still only showing 2016. Guess I will wait a few days and check again.

 

[cyclone3d]

Yeah, I looked at Photoshop a while back. I am completely and fundamentally opposed to their subscription model.

There is no way in hell I'm spending $10 per month for a piece of software I use only a handful of times a year. That would be like paying $20 every time I launch it.

It's nuts that they can get away with that. It would seem to me that if they instead sold cheaper licenses, they could get occasional users like me to buy a license, and spread out the cost over a much larger user base.

Instead, I'll just use the combination of Gimp (free and open source, yay) and my old Nikon Capture NX2 license for processing Nikon .NEF raw images when I need to. I know, it lacks some of the features and capabilities of Photoshop, but I'd sooner live with that than the crazy cost of the monthly subscription for Photoshop.

You should check out Affinity Photo.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

Non-subscription, only about $65, and really nice. I really should use it more.

The also have Designer which is a graphic design program.

And now they are also working on a publishing program that is in beta and free to download.

I still use Gimp for simple stuff, but Affinity Photo should support your RAW files from your camera.

 

[Domingo]

I wish someone would make a competing full suite of products comparable to Adobe CC. There are plenty of individual products that are as good, but nothing that can touch the full line-up of Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere, etc. Especially that all work together with Adobe's file system, sharing, and content library.
When Macromedia got bought, we lost any real competition in that space. Adobe hasn't necessarily dropped the ball or anything, but they know what they have and they do leverage it.

 

[BloodyIron]

Why pay for it when you can just use Libre Office and web e-mail interfaces?

Seriously. Most office users would save plenty by just using open source. Which you get updates for... For free!

 

[ND40oz]

Sweet.. BRB... going to see if it is available through my work's home use program yet.

Edit: Nope. still only showing 2016. Guess I will wait a few days and check again.

Only place I've been able to find it so far was on volume licensing and they're not offering msi based installs. I'm guessing that you'll need to grab it through the Office content delivery network once they have the home use program updated. The funny thing is, you can download the MacOS Office Installer package directly.

 

[Stoly]

The sad thing is the Office is going to hell. Office 2016 is vastly inferior to Office 2013.

The UI is cluttered, there's tons of crap in it you can't get rid of, like definitions in the pop-up spell check.
And it's SLOW. Spell check especially is incredibly slow. I sit there watching the spinning cursor every time I run it, even on small (10K word) documents.
And worse, it's WRONG. Office 2013 understood that "Claims 2 and 4 stand rejected..." was correct. Office 2016 thinks that should be "stands rejected."

I wouldn't have upgraded, but I subscribe to Office 365 Pro, and Office 2013 just stopped working one day.
Everything failed to launch. Microsoft gave me no choice.

To each its own but I choose Office 2016 over 2013 anyday of the week and twice on sundays.

 

[JargonGR]

I am perfectly fine with Office 365 @ $100 for all my PCs & Tablets & Phones + 1/TB OneDrive per user (6 users * 10 devices each now).

And no, free alternative do not cut it for what I am doing.

 

[nubbin77]

Ugh, so what they are saying is, it is only a matter of time until all of this goes cloud/subscription based

Personally I will certainly never subscribe to any cloud based software package.

never say never.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Why pay for it when you can just use Libre Office and web e-mail interfaces?

The biggest reason is the fact that we live in a world where Microsofts Office document formats are the de facto standard. Often if someone sends you a Word document and you open it in LibreOffice, the formatting is all wrong. This may not matter for casual users, but in many cases, there is an expectation that it looks identical when opened. In a case like this, LibreOffice fails.

Also, LibreOffice calc falls flat on its face with REALLY large data sets, or spreadsheet files with very many tabs in them. It gets slower an slower when opening and saving documents (even though they are only a few hundred KB, until eventually it starts either crashing or losing data.

I prefer to do as much as I can in linux, but I still keep a Windows VM around for cases like these, when I just need Office to work. (I don't use it very often anymore though)

 

[Zepher]

It's not available for normal people today,

Availability

• Commercial volume license (trusted) customers can access Office 2019 starting today.
• Office 2019 will be available to all customers, consumer and commercial, in the next few weeks.

Also, it makes it sound like consumers and commercial customers are not trusted, aka thieves, aka pirates.

 

[lostin3d]

Thanks Cagey, didn't even know 2019 was a thing. Last I heard they were really trying to force 365 on everyone. At one point it seemed darn near every vendor I dealt with for my IT duties was promoting 365 stating how that BTW they could get us free 360 licenses. I upgraded out organization to 2016 when it came out. Really not ready to let our stuff go to cloud based services yet. Too old school, want to keep it somewhat within physical reach and not have any real internet dependencies. Have to check if our licenses allow an upgrade if we want down the road. I'd be curious what new fun stuff they put into Powerpoint.

 

[cyclone3d]

The biggest reason is the fact that we live in a world where Microsofts Office document formats are the de facto standard. Often if someone sends you a Word document and you open it in LibreOffice, the formatting is all wrong. This may not matter for casual users, but in many cases, there is an expectation that it looks identical when opened. In a case like this, LibreOffice fails.

Also, LibreOffice calc falls flat on its face with REALLY large data sets, or spreadsheet files with very many tabs in them. It gets slower an slower when opening and saving documents (even though they are only a few hundred KB, until eventually it starts either crashing or losing data.

I prefer to do as much as I can in linux, but I still keep a Windows VM around for cases like these, when I just need Office to work. (I don't use it very often anymore though)

Excel falls flat on it's face with really large data sets. 64-bit Excel is better, but still fails hard when trying to graph really large data sets.

What is needed in that case is NI Diadem which is super excellent with huge amounts of data.

LibreOffice is a joke IMO.

FreeOffice is another alternative to MS Office. I haven't used it that much, but it seems better than Libre at least.
https://www.freeoffice.com/en/

 

[Grimlaking]

I have office 365 at home since I needed licenses for 5-6 PCs + all our devices so 2016 standalone was a no go.

I really have no issues with it and we also get 1TB OneDrive per user. As far as privacy is concerned I really don't give a shit since my business docs are not state secrets and I doubt Microsoft cares about their content. Real secrets should only exist in our heads.

I'm in the same boat here. IT gives my wife 1tb of backed up storage for the pictures of the grandkids. I can't knock it.

 

[umeng2002]

Thanks for the reminder to check for LibreOffice updates

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Thanks for the reminder to check for LibreOffice updates

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